Bruins looking for answers, swap Thornton and Ryder

Michael Ryder

Having lost two straight contests, plus dropping four of their last five while watching their home record crash to 2-4-1 on the season, Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien has decided to give his line-up a bit of a shake-up today.

As the Bruins welcomed back center David Krejci (concussion) and defenseman Johnny Boychuk (fractured forearm) to non-contact practice at Ristuccia Memorial Arena this morning, Julien also shuffled-up the lines by swapping forwards Michael Ryder and Shawn Thornton to each others’ respective lines.

Ryder, lined with center Gregory Campbell and Brad Marchand on the Bruins’ fourth-line today, has four goals on the season which ties him for this best on the team in 14 games. And despite a debacle of a ’09-10 NHL season, Ryder is off to the best start of his tenure in Boston.

“”I wanted to come into camp in good shape and get off to a good start, and I think I did that. Last year was a disappointment for me personally and a lot of the other guys, and a team as a whole,” Ryder said today after practice, donning the maroon fourth-line jersey. “We wanted to be better and get off to a good start and we did that.